


Five Stars: The Best of RedStar

by CloudAtlas



Series: RedStar [4]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Rock Band, Embedded Images, Fanart, Interview Transcript, Magazine articles, Multi, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-22
Updated: 2020-10-22
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:40:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27088768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CloudAtlas/pseuds/CloudAtlas
Summary: In celebration of the release of RedStar’s latest – and final – album,Five Stars: The Best of RedStar, Melody Makermanaged to sit down with the remaining members (and a slew of important additions) to talk about their impressive back catalogue.
Relationships: Clint Barton/Natasha Romanov, James "Bucky" Barnes/Clint Barton, James "Bucky" Barnes/Clint Barton/Natasha Romanov, James "Bucky" Barnes/Natasha Romanov, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Series: RedStar [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1475267
Comments: 38
Kudos: 82





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> First chapter is the magazine article, second chapter is picture credits and additional info. Beta'd by **inkvoices**.
> 
> This is image heavy and probably best viewed on a desktop.

In celebration of the release of RedStar’s latest – and final – album, _Five Stars: The Best of RedStar_ , _Melody Maker_ managed to sit down with the remaining members (and a slew of important additions) to talk about their impressive back catalogue.

RedStar In The City EP (20--)

**James Buchanan Barnes (JBB):** [laughs] Nope. Ask Clint about this one.

 **Clint Barton (CB):** Oh God, I remember this! They wanted something to send to record labels, right? Properly send, not just, ‘Oh, and here’s our SoundCloud,’ bullshit. So Wanda [Maximoff] sneaks them into one of those tiny recording studios that Julliard has, and they con whatever drummer’s on hand into recording the five completed songs they’ve written, ‘cause this was about a year before Darcy [Lewis] shows up. And James wants Steve [Rogers – artist] to do the cover, but he’s eyeball deep into his final pieces for his MA showcase and can’t even remember what day it is. And they’re at it for about a week, running on fumes, Wanda stressed as hell because she refuses to miss class and me pissed that everyone’s constantly invading _my_ room and not letting me fucking sleep. And then James and Natasha [Romanov] start going through Steve’s sketchbooks and pulling out likely drawings, which makes Steve yell, which sets Natasha and James yelling, and soon _everyone’s_ yelling and I just _want to sleep_. So I take the sketch closest to me, break out a dumbass label maker Wanda got from Goodwill, and slap everything onto some purple craft paper, throw it at them and then kick them out the room. [pause] They resized the images for the official release. [pause] I’ve got the original framed in my kitchen. It’s got a coffee stain on it now.

 **Steve Rogers (SR):** It’s just folks at Grand Central, you know?

RedStar by RedStar (20--)

 **Wanda Maximoff (WM):** We agreed to _Blank Slate_ because we thought it would be a foot in the door, you know? We never expected _Nevermore_ to get big or, if we did, we expected the Grandmaster remix to eclipse the original and it’d be us slogging for years before we got recognised. And we were okay with that. We’d planned for it. So this was insane.

 **Natasha Romanov (NR):** We hadn’t fully settled on a name before Clint slapped ‘REDSTAR’ on the EP. Up to then RedStar had just been one of many, though clearly Clint’s favourite. But the folks at Heroes for Hire needed a name and RedStar stuck. There was a worry we’d have rights issues with one of the slew of Red Star sports teams [the Chicago Red Stars attempted a suit] but nothing came of it.

 **JBB:** What’s most amazing about this album, really, is that people bought it. Not to sound – I know that sounds sort of dumb but… hit songs on film soundtracks rarely lead to anything, you know? People usually respond to That One Thing and the album never gets anywhere. To this day I dunno what we did right.

 **Sam Wilson (SW – manager):** It was _Season of Mists_ and _Carnation_. One of them is gonna say they dunno how this album got big, but I’m tellin’ you: it was _Season of Mists_ and _Carnation_.

liminal spaces (20--)

**WM:** James had been reading all this apocalyptic fantasy and speculative fiction about the end of society as we knew it and – well it was a worry then. You know, before it became an actuality, like it is now. We were still in the ‘bury your head in the sand’ phase and… well. It got watered down here, sure, but. [pause] ‘Speak through your medium’ is something Steve always says. So, we spoke through our medium.

 **JBB:** Sure, it was the fantasy stuff, and the political stuff, and all that. But it was also – make or break, yeah? Here’s the edge, step off. Fling yourself into the abyss and hope it pans out. Panicked joyous young shit. There’s a global message, sure, but there’s also a personal one. _RedStar_ was recorded in cheap studios in New York. We were _flown out to LA_ for this one. It was crazy. That was rock star shit. But on the _other_ other hand, you always want to say _something_.

 **Bruce Banner (BB – producer):** They were a very mature band even then, is the thing. There were a lot of ideas in this album and they weren’t necessarily _second album_ ideas. Or at least they weren’t second album ideas unless your yardstick is Arcade Fire. It’s something very few bands can actually pull off and RedStar were younger than Arcade Fire when their second album was released.

Revelations of Thirty-Six Other Worlds (20--)

 **JBB:** Wanda was obsessed with this book, okay? _Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell_. It wasn’t even a new book or anything, but she was just… obsessed. Magic and fairy roads and shit. And then Darcy got in on the act, and parallel universes got involved, and suddenly it was [hand waves] how were those other versions of yourself doing? What might they have got wrong, or right? [long pause] What had they managed not to fuck up that you were in the process of fucking up?

 **WM:** I remember, years later, having dinner with Darcy in London and talking about this album. ‘It’s full of guilt,’ she said, ‘and nobody noticed it at the time.’ She was so right. There are songs on here that I’m really proud of, but I can’t really listen to it and not feel bad. [pause] That book though. Have you ever read that book? You should. It’s amazing.

 **NR:** It’s astonishing that this album isn’t a mess. And I know for a fact that Clint’s never listened to it. Not that I blame him.

Shapes (20--)

 **SR:** Is it cheesy to get married to a song your friends wrote? I don’t care. Pegs [Peggy Carter – yes, _that_ Peggy Carter] walked down the aisle to _Blossoms in Autumn_ and I can’t hear that song without grinning like a fucking loon.

 **SW:** In so many ways, this is peak RedStar. Everything clicked. Live shows were electric – like, they had been before, but this was a whole other level. There’s a reason this was the tour that got the books and DVDs and entries on ‘best of’ lists. It’s what you get when your band is just, hands down, uncomplicatedly _happy_.

 **JBB:** This album is the most fucking fun I’ve ever had in a recording studio. And that includes the time Wanda, Darcy, and Sam decided to prank the sound techs when recording _Crown of Leaves_.

 **NR:** Darcy said, ‘Play _Skybound_ at my funeral.’ So we did. Balls to the wall, top of your lungs, a whole room full of people singing and crying. God, she’d’ve been pissed at the tears, but Tony [Stark] brought the good stuff, so we’ll blame it on that.

 **CB:** Some fan made James a t-shirt of this cover. Black, those shapes in white thread, and a little red star on the back, near the nape. I’ve still got it. I fucking love it. So, if that was you, thank you.

Beware the Hydra (20--)

 **NR:** Oh yeah, the dreaded protest album. We got so much shit for this. ‘Music shouldn’t be political!’ Right. Well, tell that to Dylan. Or Johnny Cash, or Nina Simone, or Hozier, or the Chicks or literally anyone ever. Ariana fucking Grande made political statements in her music. Just because they were pop-soaked bops doesn’t mean they weren’t there. Art doesn’t occur in a vacuum. Grow the fuck up.

 **Jessica Jones (JJ – music journalist):** RedStar got more flack for this album than anything else, including Barnes coming out and the publication of _Courage, Dear Heart_ , which I guess isn’t surprising really, but at the same time you just want to go, ‘Really? _This_? Rather than literally anything ca$$hmoney or Elen ever put out?’ _Beware the Hydra_ was literally released two months before ca$$hmoney’s _Dirty Rich_ which contained such auditory delights as _PU$$Y_ and _Pop It_ , some of the most capitalistic, misogynistic, and homophobic music released that decade. But no, RedStar want the government to stop killing POCs, help refugees, and stop bombing Venezuela so clearly they’re the _real_ enemy.

 **BB:** I mean really, what did you expect from a generation brought up on _The Hunger Games_ , the School Strike for Climate, and Joshua Wong? Prior to this album’s release, RedStar had vocally supported AOC’s Senate bid, campaigned for various LGBT+ causes, and played the _Music for a Better Planet_ event at Knebworth. How was this a radical departure?

Crown of Leaves (20--)

 **WM:** This was a Darcy album, for so many reasons. We all share writing credits, but you can tell when someone’s getting more time. Like, _liminal spaces_ is more me, _Other Worlds_ is more James and Natasha, and _Crown of Leaves_ is definitely Darcy. And sure, it’s the drums but it’s also just _everything_.

 **SW:** Darcy was always the member of RedStar who was sort of… underappreciated, I think is the right word. To the public, as a band they were seemingly very steady in temperament. _RedStar_ ’s recording was delayed so Wanda could finish college and she was married by the time she turned thirty, and – admittedly unbeknownst to the public – Natasha and James were in a stable and committed relationship for the entirety of their adult lives. Darcy was the wild child when the bar for being seen as ‘wild’ was pretty fucking low. So she had a high profile tempestuous relationship. So what? It wasn’t half as dramatic as some celebrity relationships, yet it meant that Darcy was… written off, to a certain extent. Which is just… God, it still annoys me, you know? Darcy wrote _Sail Away, Alice_. Darcy _made_ this album. Don’t you dare tell me she wasn’t important.

 **JBB:** She was thick skinned, but fuck. Some of the shit she got flung her way.

 **NR:** This is one of the few albums we made that I listen to for fun. You very rarely want to listen to music you made because you end up picking holes in it, but this one… I just love it. It’s so… us, then. And it’s so _Darcy_.

innon (20--)

 **WM:** Oh! The Clint album.

 **SW:** [laughter] You want me to talk about this? [more laughter] Okay, okay. Easy. Innon is a character from _The Broken Earth_ trilogy by N K Jemisin. He’s the stabilising component of a triad relationship. You bet your ass this album is about Clint Barton. I mean, they hid it well, but still.

 **WM:** They clammed up when you asked about this, didn’t they? You’d think, all these years later, they could just come out and admit it, but no. Because this album sold millions and was chosen as an Album of the Year by a fucking President and is _sappy as fuck_ – or at least, it is if you’re James and Natasha. I love it.

 **JBB:** To this day, I have no fucking clue how I got through the press tour for that fucking album.

 **CB:** [grinning] It’s a good anniversary present, right?

Immortal (20--)

 **WM:** My brother [Sokovian Olympic sprinter Pietro Maximoff] was killed in a car crash in 20--. Drunk driver. Left behind a beautiful wife and little baby girl. And me. And it… that was it, for a while, you know? He’d been my only family for so long – until I came to the States and met Clint and the RedStar folks – and it felt… so unfair. Just. Unmooring.

 **JBB:** We were lucky, as a group, that we hadn’t encountered death like this before now. Clint’s dad and Steve’s mum died when they were in their early teens, and after long illnesses. And I’m not saying that’s _better_ , it just means – this was the first time it had hit any of us like this, you know? And we all _knew_ Pietro, of course we did. He and Wanda were so close.

 **NR:** It hit Wanda hard, of course it did, but it hit all of us, especially Darcy. She and Pietro were also really close – they just _gelled_ , you know? So there was all this _feeling_ floating around, needing processing, and it took ages – plus both Wanda and Darcy had kids in the run-up to this album, which also impacted the sound.

 **WM:** I think out of all our albums, this one was the hardest. It took _years_ to fight it into shape, years of it not fitting, years of it not saying what we wanted it to. But we got there.

The Great Derangement (20--)

 **NR:** People called this another protest album when it was released and, yeah I guess, but I’d class it as more of a concept album myself. A hindsight-is-twenty-twenty sort of deal. Also a letter-to-my-younger-self sort of thing. It actually came out of that Palm Hotel incident in Japan. Remember that? Where they went through every option and then blamed that cop for an action he’d had exactly twenty seconds to contemplate? And you think, how is that fair? You’ve had hours to go over the facts and you’re blaming this guy for taking the best course of action available to him with twenty seconds’ time for consideration. And then there’s the flip side; the thing everyone saw coming but somehow is surprised actually arrived. And who’s to blame for that? What would kids born today want to say to policymakers of eighty years ago who had the chance to curb all this shit we’re seeing now and just… didn’t, because it was _hard_ and _expensive_ and _not politically convenient_.

 **WM:** The title’s from a book by Amitav Ghosh that… I think it was Steve who actually read it, but it was about climate change and how we as a species construct narrative and how that limits our ability to conceptualise events that happen on a global scale, or over long periods of time, or regarding things we believe to be static and fixed. It’s in part where Steve’s _An Apology_ came from. And to think, that book was old when we got to it. And what’s changed? Not much.

 **JBB:** I don’t think it’s my favourite album we’ve made, but weirdly I think it’s the one I’m most proud of.

Artichoke (20--)

 **CB:** Dumbass name for an album, but holy hell, I love that cover.

 **BB:** I’ve never been so pleased to be asked back by a band. And then they bring you songs like this and you think, ‘Yes, this is why I got into this job. Music like this.’ It’s a career highlight for me. I love it. The sounds are so mature, so intelligent.

 **JJ:** How dare they come back after years with an album like this, you know? _How dare they_. All those baby bands just starting out getting schooled so thoroughly. I almost wanted to be angry when I first heard it. How dare they just _continue being amazing?_ They’ve not made a bum album, not one. Sure, people will argue about _The Great Derangement_ and _Revelations_. And _Hydra_ made lots of people mad, but where they bad albums? Categorically not. And then they come back in their early sixties and do this. Fucking rude.

 **NR:** We knew Darcy was ill by this point. And we thought, you know what? If this is the last thing we can do with her, we’re going to give her the best fucking send-off. And God, she must have thought the same. Those drum riffs are the best fucking thing Darcy Lewis ever recorded. She knocked it out of the fucking park.

Blank Slate OST (20--)

 **Elektra Natchios (director):** You won’t believe me, but I found a _RedStar in the City_ EP abandoned on the subway. Which is absolutely ridiculous, I later found out, because they apparently only pressed 200 or so copies, mostly to send to record labels. And I think I only actually played it because of the song called _Red Leather Woman_. The title just _called_ to me. [laughs] And then I found their SoundCloud and the Grandmaster remix of _Nevermore_ – and the rest is history, as they say.

 **Claire Temple (actress):** That Grandmaster remix was brilliant. And I’m not taking anything away from the original, which I also love, but in terms of this film, that remix was _perfect_.

 **WM:** I never actually saw the film, you know. If a film edges into the stressful too much, I just can’t cope. [laughs] I’m a massive wimp really.

 **JBB:** God, I’d been obsessed with Natchios’ films all through college. _Coasting_? Loved it. _All Greek to Me?_ Stunning. Made me cry. God, I love her stuff, even now. _Blank Slate_ isn’t my favourite – that’s always going to be _Greek_ – but I literally cried when Natasha picked up the phone to find Natchios on the other end. It was so surreal.

 **NR:** We went to the premiere in LA and we were so fucking star struck. I was almost shaking when I met Helen Cho and Claire Temple, and Darcy almost spilled champagne on Colleen Wing’s very expensive Zuhair Murad gown. We were a mess.

August OST (20--)

 **Cassie Lang (actress):** Dad [Scott Lang – director] heard about them through Jeff at 101 Music in San Francisco, I think. Music was always important to him in his movies – ‘the other actor,’ he’d call it – and I remember him just sat at his record player, watching one of their records go round and staring at it like he had no idea what was happening to him. He was determined to get RedStar to work with him on a movie, and Mom said he took his entire collection of RedStar records with him when he was pitching the idea for _August_ to studios – like, the actual records, not just a link to them on Spotify – lugging around his portable record player because the sound ‘wasn’t right’ otherwise.

 **Tony Stark (producer):** Lang introduced me to RedStar through this project. They’d only had the EP and first two albums out, but during the project he’d message me _every single time_ they released something new and eventually I just thought, well why don’t I invite them to collaborate? Blow little Scottie’s mind.

 **NR:** [laughs] Scott Lang. What a guy. No chill whatsoever.

 **WM:** I think he was the first person to actually make it crystal clear to us that _our peers_ were impressed with what we were doing. Sure, the folks involved with _Blank Slate_ and the production of our albums were great, but Scott was just… he had no angle, you know? He was more excited to meet us and talk about music than he was interested in convincing us to work on _August_ with him. When Tony suggested it, he looked surprised, like he hadn’t thought of that outcome at all.

Madder Red OST (20--)

 **SW:** What can _possibly be said_ about _Madder Red_ that hasn’t already been said? It’s a fucking cultural touchstone now. It’s said in the same sentence as _Citizen Kane_ and _The Godfather_ and _2001: A Space Odyssey_ , it’s insane.

 **Peggy Carter (actress):** I knew it was good. I knew it as soon as I read the script, but nothing made me think it would become this. Nothing prepared me for it. Nothing at all. Ana [Jarvis – director] was a genius. She’s up there with Spielberg and Kubrick and Hitchcock, and that is the hill I will die on.

 **CB:** James and Natasha came home one day and said, ‘Oh, we’re working on this film. It looks good. You should see it.’ And I didn’t get a chance to immediately, because it was Oscar material and released in January and do you have any idea how much shit there is to do on a ranch at that time? Loads. Loads and loads. But I got there eventually. Took my sister-in-law as a break from the kids and drove to our nearest theatre. We didn’t speak when it ended and we didn’t speak the whole drive home. We didn’t know what to say. We had no idea. I took her back to mine and we walked out to one of the big fields and we lay down on the grass and stared at the stars for _literally ages_ and then I said, ‘Fucking hell’ and she said, ‘Yeah,’ and I drove her home.

 **JBB:** Clint didn’t remember we’d made the music for that film until about a month after he’d seen it. He met Ana Jarvis once and it was like he’d seen Jesus. I’ve never known him like that.

We OST (20--)

 **JJ:** It’s so fucking obvious in hindsight, isn’t it?

 **Okoye Dora Milaje (actress):** M’Baku [Jabari] had had this idea for so long, because he was brought up with it. He’d had two moms and a dad, and it had always been normal to him. So he’d wanted to explore that on film. And of course I was going to say yes – I had such a crush on him at the time!

 **M’Baku Jabari (director):** It was Shuri who brought them to me – I’m a jazz guy, one hundred percent – but as soon as I heard them I just knew they were perfect for this project. _Prairie Skies_ especially. But I had ideas which… There’s things you assume, when you’re an outside observer, which end up not being true. And suddenly I found myself invited out to Iowa and folded into this circle of trust that explained exactly why RedStar had immediately accepted my proposal. Don’t get me wrong, I still found triads and poly groups to talk to about it, because everyone is different and I was writing a Black MFF triad, which Clint, James, and Natasha obviously aren’t, but having them on board made such a _huge_ difference. To the movie, sure, but also to me and, I think, to them too.

 **JBB:** M’Baku was the only one who met Clint – and obviously Okoye eventually, when the two of them got serious – but T’Challa [King] and Nakia [Habithi] were at least told about mine and Natasha's ‘relationship status,’ and we sort of became the people the main trio could reach out to for advice.

 **NR:** I remember telling Nakia that there had been times during that film that I’d hated her character because I would have given anything to be able to be open about my relationships, and I couldn’t, and here was Njeri wanting to _hide_ , if only in small ways, and I just wanted to _slap her_.

The History of Birds OST (20--)

 **NR:** Everything up to this point had been – we’d been writing songs with musical interludes, or one off songs for credit music and the like. Featured artists and all that. But Sif [Sigurđardóttir] and the folks at A24 wanted film music _composition_ and we only had the vaguest idea of how to do that. It was like stumbling through the dark.

 **JBB:** Of course it was Wanda who came into her own here. She’d studied music at Julliard; she’s a _classically trained_ pianist, she _composed_. She worked it out, and she flourished.

 **Sif Sigurđardóttir (director):** I didn’t know them before this, not really. I knew tracks like _Skybound_ and _Sail Away, Alice_ , but it wasn’t my thing really. I was always a classical girl and, like, Sigur Rós and Björk, because I’m loyal. It was A24 who brought them on board and I was sceptical. [laughs] And since then I’ve used Wanda almost exclusively to soundtrack my movies. There’s someone at A24 that needs a big fruit basket from me!

 **WM:** I don’t want to say it was like coming home, because that would be a lie, but it was like a door opened in my mind, one I’d deliberately shut after college, and all this music flowed out. The first time I sat in on an orchestra playing something I’d arranged something settled, and I just knew that when RedStar slowed down, this is what I’d be doing. Natasha and James would go to Iowa, and Darcy would juggle the mom-and-fashion thing she had going on, and I would do this. And the fact that I was based in Britain by then didn’t hinder me at all, like it did Darcy, at least a little. You can’t just rely on London Fashion Week, but I could rotate orchestras once a week and not run out of options.

Dark Matter Original Score (20--)

 **WM:** I was so nervous doing this without the rest of RedStar to back me up. What if I couldn’t do it? What if it was the others were my muses? Or… literally every middle-of-the-night scenario passed through my head at some point, but I was working with Bruce, which helped, and Maria [Hill] proved invaluable when it came to… everything to do with scoring films. She’s astonishing.

 **JBB:** You know those movies where the music just makes everything more stressful, like Nolan’s _Dunkirk_? Or Jóhann Jóhannsson work on _Arrival_? Or Maria Hill’s stuff for _Venice_ and _Moondust?_ That’s what Wanda did on this film. Like, it was scary on its own, but add the music and the dark became a _physical presence._

 **NR:** I don’t think I’ve ever been as proud of Wanda as I was coming out of the _Dark Matter_ premiere. I think I actually pushed Paul [‘the Vision’ Jarvis – chef and Wanda’s husband] out of the way to give her a hug. I unironically asked her to autograph a copy of the record and I have it framed in our little music room at home.

 **BB:** Wanda asked me to work on this with her, because she was unsure about doing pure film scores. [laughs] I have no idea why! One; she’s brilliant, and two; I’d worked _exclusively_ as a rock and pop producer. How was I going to help? But we muddled though, and she got me hooked. My work with all those later Nick Fury films was because of Wanda and _Dark Matter_.

Prairie Skies _by_ Helios (20--)

 **JJ:** I remember when this was released. I remember it _so clearly_. [laughs] It’s ridiculous really, I’m a music journalist. Getting overinvested in music _is my job_ , but this was… I don’t know. It just hit me. I’d got word that their lead single was going to be premiered on some British station so I woke up at 5am to catch it live. I don’t think I breathed the entire time it was playing. I don’t think I thought of anything else all day. I’m not kidding when I say that this is probably my favourite album ever recorded. And maybe it was just because of what I was going through at the time, but _damn_.

 **CB:** I’m gonna be honest, I’ve only listened to this all the way through like twice or something. It’s not… [pause] I think it was the process that was important, and it never felt like enough time had passed? [pause] Maybe I should go back to it.

 **NR:** People always want to know about this album, and that’s not changed even after Sun’s book. Which – I get it, I do. But talking about it feels like… [long pause] Nothing was guaranteed, okay? Nothing. Not the band, not our relationship, not anything. It was terrifying and a constant struggle, but it was ours, yeah? And it’s still ours and we get to keep that. Me and Clint and James, we get to keep that.

 **JBB:** Clint letting us release this is, I think, the bravest thing he’s ever done, and he’s done a boat load of incredible things. And Christ, I love him.

Another Place: RedStar Greatest Hits (20--)

 **WM:** This was one of those The Label Insists kind of deals. We were working on _Crown of Leaves_ but it was taking us a while and they wanted a Best Of so… people didn’t get bored, I guess? We weren’t particularly enthused but, well, you know. The label insisted.

 **JBB:** There’s not much you can do with a Best Of to be honest. It’s what it says on the tin. But we had fun with it, as much as we were able. We’d had Steve do our first EP, so we thought what if we used him again?

 **SW:** It’s really only the kind of thing you can get away with if you’ve known the artist since you were starting out. [laughs] Big name fine artists tend not to do album artwork for just anyone.

 **SR:** It’s a piece I did on this deserted beach in Upstate New York, just all these life sized statues staring out to sea, being eroded over time. They’re based on casts of my own body and the idea was to think about context, about tides and sand and time and erosion, and about how even permanent things aren’t permanent.

 **JBB:** There’s something very lonely about them, and something incredibly beautiful. Even if I have to see replicas of Steve’s junk.

 **WM:** It’s incredible. It moved to Upstate New York around the same time as my brother died and seeing it for the first time was… [long pause] I just stood there, staring out to sea, crying, for possibly an hour. It’s one of the most moving pieces of artwork I have ever seen in my life.

The Universe in Ecstatic Motion: The B-Sides (20--)

 **JBB:** This was another of those things the label suggested, but I thought this was a cooler idea [than a greatest hits album]. I always wanted an excuse to get wider recognition for songs like _Glass Town_ and _Katherine Johnson_. Plus Wanda’s improv on the live version of _Never Mind That_ from Lollapalooza is about the greatest thing we’ve ever recorded.

 **CB:** [hysterical laughter] _What the fuck?_

 **SW:** B-Side albums are always a bit of a risk and considering the decline of the single this was a pretty odd decision by Misty Knight at Heroes For Hire. But I think most people just treated it like another album.

 **CB:** [more laughter] Oh my God, whose idea was this _cover?_ Why did no one _tell me_?

 **WM:** We were pretty strict about having no more than fourteen tracks on an album, so a lot of stuff never made it. It was nice to give them a proper airing. Our cover of Shearwater’s _You As You Were_ was one I was especially happy to put on there.

 **NR:** James wanted to call it ‘Men Wear Nail Polish Too, You Know,’ but the label wouldn’t have it, not coupled with this cover – though c’mon, it’s no worse than what Roxy Music did, really – so in the end we went with Rumi. Did you know he wrote poetry about masturbation?

 **CB:** How have I gone this long _without knowing about this cover_?

Five Stars: The Best of RedStar (20--)

 **WM:** _Another Place: RedStar Greatest Hits_ was one of those things we had to do, you know? Darcy was pregnant, I was pregnant and grieving – there was a lot going on that meant we couldn’t tour and found writing and recording hard. And the label was really good about it all, very supportive. But they needed something, at least from a purely commercial point of view, and a Best Of was easy to put out. Tidy up some recordings, re-touch some photos, a few interviews, and _bam_ , a saleable product. But if we’d had it our way? That record wouldn’t have happened.

 **JBB:** This is when you do a Best Of. At the end of your career.

 **SW:** RedStar doesn’t exist without Darcy. If you take _any one_ of these guys away, RedStar doesn’t exist. They knew as soon as she was diagnosed that it was the end of RedStar. So after _Artichoke_ , this was the only thing left.

 **NR:** Putting this together was way more fun than the last one. For starters, we defined ‘best of’ to mean ‘the best representation of RedStar as a band’ and not ‘hit the Billboard Top 100’. James even wanted to leave _Nevermore_ off because he was so bored of it, but Wanda and I overruled him in the end.

 **JJ:** I love that they’ve included album tracks on it, like _Totality_ and _Shifting Sands_. I love that they put the live version of _Blossoms in Autumn_ from Radio City Music Hall on it instead of the _Shapes_ version. I love that they’ve included _Unkindness of Ravens_ – remember _Unkindness of Ravens_? It was the single they put out to raise money for disaster relief in the Mozambique after those terrible floods. Pay what you like. I remember reading somewhere that the most someone donated was $10,000.

 **JBB:** We wanted it to show who we were, and who we are, and what’s important to us. It’s why Wanda insisted that _innon_ from _innon_ be on there, even though there’s a little part of me that that finds listening to that song like looking into a mirror after you’ve cried your heart out. You know, raw and tender. It’s why _Wood Smoke_ from _Immortal_ and _Dying Light_ from _Artichoke_ are there. It’s because that’s who we are; we’ve loved, and lost, and faced our own mortality. We’re a band made up of activists and feminists and mouthy, queer liberals. And we write fucking bops.

_Interviews by Bryce Bandau  
All money raised from the sale of _Five Stars _will go to various cancer charities worldwide_


	2. Chapter 2

Picture credits:

  1. RedStar in the City EP - [Crowds at Waterloo station. by holly-warbs](https://holly-warbs.tumblr.com/post/178443442490/crowds-at-waterloo-station) / [this online label maker generator](http://imagegenerator.fuzzimo.com/embossedlabels/)
  2. RedStar by RedStar - Google Image search
  3. liminal spaces - ["The Sun" by yurishredoff](https://cloud--atlas.tumblr.com/post/142530179879/yurishwedoff-new-work-the-sun-art) (original deleted)
  4. Revelations of Thirty-Six Other Worlds - [Speculations by Sarah Mayohas](https://escapekit.ca/post/177282167273/speculations-nyc-based-artist-sarah) / title from Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
  5. Shapes - Google Image search and Wingdings on Word
  6. Beware the Hydra - none, all done on Paint/Word
  7. Crown of Leaves - Maiden with a Laurel Wreath by Henry Ryland
  8. innon - [from this image](https://cloud--atlas.tumblr.com/post/183467081802/robertalanclayton-unknown) / title from The Fifth Season by N K Jemisin
  9. Immortal - Pretty Deadly Volume 1 (2013) by Kellysue DeConnick and Emma Rios
  10. the great derangement - [GLOWING CITY](https://www.behance.net/gallery/65060947/GLOWING-CITY) / title from The Great Derangement by Amitav Ghosh
  11. Artichoke - [work by](https://lohrien.tumblr.com/post/69039404296/paintings-by-ricardo-fernandez-ortega) [Ricardo Fernandez Ortega ](http://ortegapintor.blogspot.com/)
  12. Blank Slate OST - I honestly can't find the source for this anymore. Some photo shoot with Claudia Kim, definitely found through either Google Image search or Tumblr.
  13. August OST - [this image](https://mienar.tumblr.com/post/171593087970/out-for-a-ride-instagram-shop-commission-info) by mienar
  14. Madder Red OST - [from these images](https://cloud--atlas.tumblr.com/post/126506984050/imthecatlady-okay-so-heres-the-lowdown-i)
  15. We OST - [from this article](https://www.flare.com/sex-and-relationships/what-is-polyamory/)
  16. The History of Birds OST - [_Behind a Little House_ by Manuel Cosentino](https://cloud--atlas.tumblr.com/post/186527115463/fuckin-man-suit-behind-a-little-house-by-manuel) / Google Image search
  17. Dark Matter OST - US cover to Michelle Paver's book Dark Matter
  18. Prairie Skies by Helios - Google Image search
  19. Another Place: RedStar Greatest Hits - [Another Place (1997) by Antony Gormley](https://www.antonygormley.com/projects/item-view/id/230) / an image sent to me by **gsparkle** that I legit can't find right now
  20. The Universe in Ecstatic Motion - [by Frida Castelli](https://cloud--atlas.tumblr.com/post/184457244856) / title from Rumi: "Stop acting so small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion."
  21. Five Stars: The Best of RedStar - [Cassiopeia Constellation by Midtone](https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/563463169/cassiopeia-constellation-night-sky?ref=shop_review) (since sold)



I also want to give a massive shout out to **gsparkle** who willing spent a very long time chatting with me via Twitter about exactly what kind of art Steve Rogers would make if he were Modern Artist Steve Rogers. (He'd be a sculptor, we decided. And he would make a series reinterpreting famous classical sculptures, making them about underrepresented people. They would all be carved from marble and the series would be called _Brand New Ancients_ (after the Kae Tempest poetry collection). So; Rodin's The Kiss, only they're gay. The Discobolus of Myron, but he has prosthetic legs. Rodin's Thinker, but he's a young Black boy. The Winged Victory of Samothrace just she's plus sized... etc. etc. etc. If you can't tell, I love love love this idea.)

And then finally, the amazing [You As You Were by Shearwater](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBLB-_b3_Jk) because it gives me so many feelings.


End file.
